Bitcoin Forum

Like the title explained it all when sighting towards the speculation or trade discussion section I mostly found out that lots of people are gradually turn away the purpose of bitcoin to mainly investment purposes and I mean to asked, was bitcoin created for investment purpose or it's for peer to peer to alternate fiat?

I would love to see different versions of input.

Bitcoin isn't turning away from its purpose at all mate. Infact, it is advancing and growing massively in different aspects compared to what it was initially created for. If you check the Bitcoin white paper (https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=https://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwjfh7C0i8OGAxWhQkEAHRJaASQQFnoECAUQAQ&usg=AOvVaw05-4mYD7EyyKjwcHh8i0Vw), you will clearly see that Bitcoin was created as a decentralized p2p payment alternative. But with such great technology, you don't expect it to stop there. You as an investor can choose to use it for what ever purpose you want to, either as a long term investment plan or a payment option. But the truth is that bitcoin hasn't shifted a bit from its initial purpose of creation.

Satoshi Nakamoto knew that the price of bitcoin will be increasing as people are buying it. That is why he made it has a limited supply of just 21 million BTC. It may not be in the white paper that bitcoin can be for investment purpose, but Satoshi Nakamoto clearly knew it would be like that. Money should be a store of value like bitcoin.

I believe the primary purpose of Bitcoin is to decentralize currency, making it accessible to everyone globally, enabling fast and anonymous transactions. In the long run, investing in Bitcoin appears to be a viable use, as holding through bull markets tends to be more profitable than using it solely for transactions.

It is already happened years ago. Btc it self still can be used as payment but people prefer it as a speculative asset which i guess it with other thing like limited supply and crazy fees (sometimes) strengthen the view

Bitcoin was created by Satoshi as an alternative to fiat however its unique and innovative features offer more than that. It can be used as a place to hold your money in fighting against your currency going through inflation and it can also be an investment opportunity.

It turned into an investment opportunity simply because many people find bitcoin to have potential. They see it and now they are making off profits by selling it to those who want some bitcoin. You can do anything you want with bitcoin, truthfully. Use it as an alternative currency or use it as an investment tool, it’s all up to you.

Nope of course it isn't turning away. But using it to buy things only happens when the network is huge, because merchants need enough people to have it and want to buy things with it to bother adopting it for payments. And the thing that Satoshi coded in to make people want to have it is, in addition to its fundamentals as digital currency, its scarcity. Investment is the first use case, then as growth slows down it just becomes the best way to save money, no longer really an "investment", just a savings account. Only at that point, once lots of people own it, does it make sense for merchants to adopt it. Paying for stuff is the final stage of its growth.

Remember this is something that is organically growing from one person to global usage. The only way for it to grow is gradually phase to phase with transactional currency being the final stage. Once it seems like it is meeting its purpose, that means it has already achieved mass adoption.

Today, Bitcoin is a speculation instrument and almost nothing else.

Bitcoin was originally created for one reason, which is to thwart government subpoenas and visibility into transactions. Because of the public ledger, Bitcoin transactions are ultimately trackable, so that really never worked out.

Today, almost all holders of Bitcoin do so with an app or a broker who holds their holdings in some centralized database. Bitcoin is absolutely not "decentralized" for almost all of its holders today, showing that almost all users really don't care about "decentralization". All they care about is that their investment goes up in value, just like investors of any other stock or ETF.

I wouldn't call something that has already happened and started happening five years ago, "gradual" though.

Bitcoin will have no value and nobody will invest their money in Bitcoin if it does not have good utility.

There are people who use bitcoins daily but there are people who less use their bitcoin and not on daily frequency. Bitcoin block explorer shows there are more than 700k transactions (707,910 transactions) from 03 June 2024 to 04 June 2024.
https://blockchair.com/bitcoin/transactions?q=time%282024-06-03%2002%3A32%3A35...2024-06-04%2002%3A32%3A35%29

There are people who have demand to use Bitcoin blockchain for transactions, fund movements.

Alternate or replace fiat is not purpose of Bitcoin. Its existence is for people to use bitcoin together with other payment methods.

Bitcoin is not turning away from its purpose of creation .
The reason of so much investment in it ,is because of its value that has a higher exchange rate which now makes it very comfortable for investors to invest in it , because the believe that as the value gets higher gradually,they tend to make more profit from it when being accumulated and stored for a long-term, rather than keep your money in the bank with little or no interest ,and because of these alot of persons wants to invest in Bitcoin which now makes the demand to be high.

Another thread asking the same thing, this post^[1] was also created a few days ago, with the same question. I don't know what gives you guys the impression that BTC is turning away from its purpose, or maybe it is you who's been having the wrong purpose or goal of BTC in mind. BTC is p2p digital cash that is an alternative currency to fiat, but people can as well decide for themselves what they want to do with their BTC without requiring permission from you, and that does not change the original purpose why BTC was created.

[1] https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5498206.msg64143275#msg64143275

When more people trade Bitcoin, compared to transacting it, it is not Bitcoin turning away from its intended purpose, but it is just one of the impacts of the development of the Bitcoin market. Even though more people trade it, there are still many users who transact with it for their various needs, so I think that Bitcoin has not changed from its true purpose, only the attitude of many people is treating Bitcoin more as a trading instrument that can give them profits. That's just a difference in attitude towards Bitcoin, whether you trade it or transact it, both are fine.

In itself, bitcoin doesn't have any absolute purpose. It's an algorithm, a protocol and nothing more. Its purpose or purposes are whatever purposes its users assign to it. As some in this thread have said, it has become a speculative instrument for some. (And this is surely the main cause of its rise in price to levels that most wouldn't have believed possible some years ago.) For others, it continues to be an alternative to fiat, banks, and everything that comes along with those things. And yes there are still ways of using it to gain a degree of anonymity or pseudonymity in one's transactions, no matter how much governments try to make it traceable.

And there are many other purposes, all sorts of creative ways to use bitcoin.

Do you only use Bitcoin as a currency? if you didn't completely use Bitcoin as a currency and choose to use it as store of value, I don't see any reason why you're creating this thread. It's not make sense when someone care with something but they're actually the one who didn't care with it in the first place.

It can work, as long as people didn't link their coins with their identity, the banks only know there's outflow and inflow in their accounts, but the banks will never know if if they buy or sell Bitcoin. Another choice is don't use banks, directly trade BTC to cash.

Anything that has a value and that value increases A LOT during its lifespan is going to attract a lot of investors. That doesn't mean that thing stopped being what it was meant to be. Bitcoin is one of those things. Just because people are enjoying their increased "purchasing power" as their money (ie. Bitcoin) is increasing in value, it doesn't mean Bitcoin is no longer money.

An important thing to remember during your "observations" is that just because you see a lot of speculators on the internet, that doesn't mean they represent the entire bitcoin community. This category of people are the most vocal so they are seen the most as well.
Other groups (like those who use bitcoin to increase their privacy) are intentionally silent and will remain private. So it may look like they don't exist.

That happens to every popular currency. Many people in my country still “invest” in the USD for example. USD is a currency, people use currencies to buy stuff, to send money, investing in a currency usually doesn’t make any sense unless your own national currency is completely crap.

Some people trade or invest in btc for that reason too. It is because they know the USD is also crap and its days are numbered. Compared to USD, BTC is far superior money and people can see that easily. Since its inception btc’s purchasing power went only up while USD’s purchasing power has been going down for decades.

Bitcoin is an inspiring and attractive story for taking risk, investing with few cents, holding it 5 or 10 years and becoming millionaires or billionaires. It's very easy to tell story from the past but people who did not take risk, did not invest in the past can not understand story they are telling. It is only click bait story if they did not experience it and did not understand risk, uncertainty on future of Bitcoin in past years.

Bitcoin x pizza story, a man sold a family house to all in invested in bitcoin and are traveling around the world, many stories can be told but only people in those stories understand what happened.

People who has and use bitcoins can change their styles but Bitcoin blockchain is itself and it simply does its Proof of Work confirmations for people transactions.

What is style change in using bitcoin, the satoshi per dollar chart (https://charts.bitbo.io/satoshi-per-dollar/) shows that Bitcoin is recognized more and gaining higher value.

In cryptocurrency market, some people say they invest in stable coins.

USD has its value is 1 USD = 1 USD, sorry this example is funny like 1 bitcoin = 1 bitcoin, it's true forever. The exchange value of 1 bitcoin or 1 USD to another national fiat currency can be different with time. It's exchange value, exchange ratio with another fiat currency will depend on many factors, like demand and supply balance, national economic situations in two countries (USA and that country).

Let's have a glimpse of a part from the Bitcoin whitepaper.


Having that said, if someone buys from any other seller through P2P or even an exchange, this word has been fulfilled by that transaction. And whatever the receiver want to do with the received Bitcoins, it's already on his own term. So, if someone wants to hold it for so long as an asset or store of value, it doesn't matter anymore and no longer someone's business. With all of the years of Bitcoin's existence, due to its volatility, the use of it has improved and we should be happy that it's a flexible financial instrument that can function more than fiat.

I can see that you are a newbie and may not know the functions of bitcoin. When talking about P2P is just a kind of way of transactions either buy selling your coin for fiat in the Cex or P2P on decentralized system as a form of payment of goods, but bitcoin function is beyond that. The P2P is just the normal transaction. but bitcoin is more beneficial when we invest in bitcoin for a longer period. Bitcoin is a great store of value just like the way people save fiat in the bank and yet it doesn't yeild profit, bitcoin investment makes more profit in the long run.

I also don't see the derailment in the Bitcoin technology as far as the investment in Bitcoin is concerned. The truth of the matter is that everyone will expect that as the decentralized technology is growing and advancing there would be such kind of great investment opportunities that will be tied around it. So, investment in Bitcoin is just another advancement that has helped the system grow more rapidly and positively because even the government officials who are fighting the system are investing in it from the back door.

Like you mentioned earlier, the decentralized p2p payment and transaction alternative have grown over time to get the attention of top investors who have found the investment opportunity in it and have utilized it properly.

There is no straight answer for this because it's definitely diverting from its purpose because users cannot afford high transaction fees for P2P transaction but not everyone cannot afford there are high value transaction which still use Bitcoin for secure transfer I would say for low scale transfers it's not longer viable and right now Bitcoin has become more of an investment for some and remains as P2P for some as it's foraying into more verticals.

It's not turning.Bitcoin was actually created with the intention of providing a decentralized digital currency that could be used for peer-to-peer transactions, as well as an alternative to traditional fiat currencies. The primary goal of Bitcoin's creator, Satoshi Nakamoto, was to create a digital currency system that operated independently of a central authority, such as a government or financial institution.

I have shared a similar concern while I was chatting with some friends some time back and what I conclude on the issue is that Bitcoin tends to support the user achieve their financial goals and long term goals, because it is more private and decentralized and despite the use of our local Fiat, there's just so much more that can be done and much confidence exudes when one surely has some Bitcoins in their wallet and is at liberty to travel or explore new places and new ideas in total.
Bitcoin is an investment option with the launch and approval of the spot ETF and unlike other currencies, it too can be traded on the open market for the best prices too.

I just think Bitcoin is a coin that is free flowing like water and can be adapted to the pressing needs mostly as regards financial aspects in any situation or region.

I thought differently when I first saw your headline but never knew it was for this purpose. Well, if you are talking about what helped Bitcoin to grow this much to the point that it is now in the mainstream of the financial market, you can't be talking about its privacy, anonimity and decentralization characteristics, you will be wrong if you did. Bitcoin is helped due to the trading, investment and the businesses built around it and not only about buying and HODLing your coin.

If yours was the only goal, then it will never grow to this level, you will not be able to even compare it with the staggering growth that would happen. That is why the earlier adopters and miners tried as much as possible to make it tradeable, which was the beginning of the success of Bitcoin. And don't forget that Bitcoin was created to rival fiat and cover up for the excesses of it and also reduce the control of the government and other authorities dealing with fiats. If its core purpose is limited to what you iterated above, how would it be able to do to all that?

Conclusively, in my opinion, everything useful Bitcoin is being used for today are the main reasons why it was created.

That's a relevant concern these days. There are some regions where Bitcoin payments are conducted fairly often, so Bitcoin does in a way remain an alternative to fiat. Then there is also the usage of Bitcoin for gambling, where Bitcoin is a good alternative to fiat and successfully functions as such. But it's true that more and more people are talking about Bitcoin as something to hodl, as an investment asset. Bitcoin is ultimately what we make of it, and how we collectively use it. It can be both a form of money and an investment opportunity. These two are not mutually exclusive.

I enjoyed the response from @Hatcy, Bitcoin is extremely going wild and a lot more purposeful to every enthusiast. Despite its originality as a decentralized currency which was evolved in other to counter the sole control of every currency by the government but further on has triggered into another dimension of usefulness and the most realistic reason for today's adoption is as of investment purposes. Bitcoin as an investment has made a lot of people to get involved, if not there wouldn't be as much people we have who are into Bitcoin.

No, Bitcoin didn't turn away from it's purpose.

There's nothing change, Bitcoin is still Bitcoin, if you want to use Bitcoin to pay something, you can, at the same time you can also use it as a store of value. It's up to each person who own Bitcoin, different person has a different purpose and the way to use the coins.

Bitcoin is freedom, so, let people choose what they want!

An investment doesn't always have to mean something that you can get a monetary turn on. From my perspective owning Bitcoin is a hedge against the entire economic system collapsing. It's an investment of your time, energy and resources.

True, every person defines what BTC means to them, but it doesn't mean that it changed. And it's actually great that everyone can do so many things with it.

The truth is:  Yes, but this is not a bad thing. 

Bitcoin has evolved beyond its initial perception as peer-to-peer cash and is now recognized as the leading asset and guarantor of property rights.  In essence, Bitcoin offers advantages that surpass the mere function of fiat currency in peer-to-peer transactions.  It's too good to be simply considered better than fiat.  Not even debatable. 

Bitcoin wasn't created singularly for any of the purpose you did mentioned but then it can be used for both purpose and it will perfectly fit in. it only takes the decision of the person whos in possession of the bitcoin to decide what they want to do with the bitcoin they are in possession as at the tine they have the bitcoin, you can decide to trade it or better still you can decide to HODL for a while and eventually make it look like an investment for you then and that's not a bad one as well as it can turn out profitable to the HODLER.

Bitcoin can as well be used for the purpose of an alternate decentralized fiat especially in regions where its accepted as a legal tender, but just like every other commodity or asset that has an appreciative values and can be used as a store of value, Bitcoin too can be seen as a store of value and it ends up giving the value for which was expected of it but its not instantaneous, it takes some time before it effectively  gives the profit upon which its seen as a store of value and not just as an alternative peer to peer fait as you stated, the versatility of Bitcoin has made it such that it doesn't necessarily have to be limited to a particular use alone but can as well be used to get other things done as well.

No I don't think you. The thing to look here is that you have to change your way of marketing and your usefulness factors over the passage of time if you want to cope up with the generation gaps that are created nowadays.

In the past world progressed slowly but nowadays things are changing in second and technological advancement has made it clear that you have to revolutionize with time if you want to stay in the game. So BTC is doing that.

Reality is people use it where they find it convenient to use. You can’t expect for someone to use it like fiat when the country itself is not accepting bitcoin as a form of currency, or use it as an investment when you are not even knowledgeable how bitcoin works as an investment. So it always depends on the user’s capability to utilize bitcoin, but most likely bitcoin these days is more utilized as an investment. And I have no issues with that bitcoin as an investment as it continues to appreciate its value unlike fiat where its value is seen to depreciate more.

You raise a thought-provoking question! It's true that Bitcoin's original vision was to revolutionize the way we think about money, making it decentralized, accessible, and free from institutional control. But, as with any disruptive technology, its evolution has been shaped by the community's diverse needs and interests.

While some people still use Bitcoin for its intended purpose, others see its potential as a store of value, most especially a hedge against inflation, and thus is very true in third world countries.

If cryptocurrencies or Bitcoin to be precise were introduced in the lines of financial freedom, then it just makes sense that the user chooses how to use their Bitcoin...if it's a store of value then let it be, if it's used as a currency as an alternative to fiat that works too... nobody will dictate the rules on the right way of using BTC as use
is decided by the hodler !!

Btw sticking to intended use of Bitcoin by the whitepaper can never work as unforeseen circumstances came into the picture such as Regulation, centralised exchanges, inflation in some countries and the list goes on...

If Bitcoin can give birth to more goals for everyone, I don't think anything takes away from the goals of Bitcoin itself. Because investment for the future that can be carried out through Bitcoin will not make Bitcoin bad, which can even make Bitcoin more famous in the eyes of investors themselves. Now you can throw more of your fiat into Bitcoin every week or every month and that can be a great long-term goal for yourself, as well as for others. Because fiat can only be relied on for buying and nothing more, moreover its value does not increase every year, so I think there is nothing wrong with the investment objectives made through Bitcoin so far.

Is it due to what people's earnings on Bitcoin that is why many people's are classified it as a purpose of investment I will not say that is for the peer-to-peer alternative because not all the people's know about that.

Furlthermore, Because even though I've known about Bitcoin for a long time, the only thing I know about it is the investment. That's the only purpose I know of it, but may be there will be another purpose for it since it's not  only mainly for investments, but even though there is another purpose that so many people have been benefiting from i don't think it will reach the invesment.

I don't think it's even Bitcoin alone, the entire crypto phase is changing and I don't know where we are actually going right now as people who use to be pioneer of Bitcoin and support Bitcoin are all after where they can make quick money since Bitcoin can't give them those insane profits anymore. The coins we used to called shitcoins are now rebranded as meme coin and people loves it, the trading volumes I see sometimes even exceed the volume of Bitcoin trading volume on some exchanges.

Between the end of last year we saw BRC20 tokens growth on Bitcoin network, we all complaint here for it to be ban and developers to patch that but they didn't care about them and now those ones has been swept under the carpet. There was rune launch too, that was a day to Bitcoin halving that even made mempool too congested but what happened 1 month later, they are all forgotten.

ETFs are good for adoption but I will say they are just making Bitcoin names to go far into the hands of institutional investors and nothing much, on the main chain it will remain Bitcoin as even the ETF launchers has an equivalent number of Bitcoin that are been issue for every ETFs.

Bitcoin's adoption has undergone a fascinating evolution. Keen-eyed forum members have rightly emphasized the need to balance investment opportunities with Bitcoin's original vision: a decentralized financial system. However, others have argued that Bitcoin can function as both an investment and a means of exchange without sacrificing its core principles.

In my opinion, while Bitcoin's use cases have broadened beyond its initial purpose, it remains a powerful tool. It continues to serve as a decentralized and censorship-resistant currency, empowering individuals with financial sovereignty.

It depends on which point of view you want to see. Bitcoin is basically a free currency system without being tied to one party. If in its journey many people make it an investment asset, it is because it has been proven to get returns because the price has increased and has been proven to be able to be a hedge.

Something that has value will be used as an investment asset and it is worthy. Why do people try to invest in gold? the answer is because of value. Bitcoin is great again, it can be used as a means of payment in transactions without a third party, it can be invested.

It's not Bitcoin. But the people who are moving Bitcoin away from its intended purpose. You see, most people are focused on spot ETFs approval and whatnot to make a lot of money. They're not into BTC because they believe in the tech. This will eventually lead to centralization issues as institutional investment companies (and mainstream governments) amass a large portion of the circulating supply.

Of course. Network consensus is determined by miners. Not economic holders. But what's stopping the aforementioned entities from getting into the mining game? As long as they have the money, anything's possible. Fortunately, Bitcoin is open source. So if all else fails, we can just fork off to help protect decentralization + censorship-resistance. The future is unpredictable, thus we can only hope for the best.  :-\

Exactly been an alternative to the traditional currency fiat isn’t only related to it been used only for payments purposes, fiat are also saved in banks although we all know the risk involving that which is the devaluation when inflation hits it. Bitcoin on the other hand was created to be an alternative to it offering a way out of your saved currency not been affected with inflation. Bitcoin been decentralized, fixed or limited supply are all the features to make it an hedge against inflation. So many people still hoarding it rather than using it for payments might have their reason but this still doesn’t drives it away from been an alternative to fiat.

The reason why you even see a low turn out of individuals using it for payment purposes is not majorly because of the transaction fee that most people use as an excuse but to me it is because of government policies that are still strict in some countries and has prevented open acceptance of it as a means of payment.

Well said mate. Bitcoin has even gone a long way in its limitless purpose, and that’s why we can’t blame the people if they rush to own bitcoin since they can always take advantage on it by making it a long term investment or a payment alternative to fiat. Bitcoin hasn’t shifted its purpose, but it’s actually its users and investors who are using bitcoin at a good cause beyond its initial purpose.

I don't think that what is happening now with Bitcoin is moving away from its true purpose; you are wrong in that matter in the topic you made an op. In truth, bitcoin still remains true to its purpose, because apart from being a good investment, it has been used as a payment option for a few years now in various businesses, merchants, and even large companies.

So, right here, we can see that Bitcoin has not really changed in its true design, which is why it was actually created by Satoshi Nakamoto. Just for me, it is still good for long-term investment, payment options, and source of income either.

I think not. Well,  you see, bitcoin is a new technology and really has the potential to be the most powerful currency in the world. It's not that bitcoin is being used for its intended purpose; it's just that people are implementing it in other innovations, which is a good thing. Bitcoin being used in many projects or innovations means the future of bitcoin  is bright. So dont just stay what you think bitcoin purpose is because its better to have many innovations in bitcoin, unlike what its primarily purpose is, and it is another way of introducing bitcoin to other people. If people can see bitcoin in many things, then people will be more interested and most likely to use bitcoin. Many bitcoin users mean bitcoin will increase more, so dont be too worried about bitcoin drifting to its original purpose, because it is not; its just that bitcoin is being used and implemented in many things.

Personally op I don't agree fully with that. I believe the reason why it seems like Bitcoin is gradually drifting away from the plans which Satoshi NAKAMOTO initially had is because of the debate about Bitcoin being a P2P currency or a valuable form of investment. The fact is that from the initial intension of Satoshi, Bitcoin was meant to be an easy form of electronic peer to peer cash system without a third party involved.
The fact that Bitcoin price is increasing doesn't mean that it isn't a suitable P2P currency. However the difference is that it is a better currency for larger volumes of transaction in cash.

Although Satoshi's original dream was a simple P2P transaction system, we can arguably say that the result of Bitcoin gaining adoption and value was actually quite inevitable given special factors like decentralization, POW and even halving.

Of course your right to an extent, but from what op is saying is the fact that bitcoin from an obvious point or view or if you're very observant with the way things are going now you will find out that bitcoin is more of a speculative currency than a P2P digital currency that it was meant for, although it's still in its original track but from a closer look with the way adoptions and big institutions are showering in a lot of cash into bitcoin holding it as a reserve currency you can see that it's more life a speculative device than a cash thar it is.

It is what it is but the investment part of bitcoin is put first this days instead of a currency for transactions.

People are still trading bitcoin P2P so I don't get the concern, maybe this is just a part of bitcoin in the first place, for this to be a way for people of all backgrounds to invest and hopefully achieve financial freedom for the people, maybe you're too worried about the purpose that this might be it OP, this might be the purpose that you were looking for, as long as people are trading bitcoin and buying with bitcoin, it's never going to be straying away from it's purpose.

The initial purpose of bitcoin is still obeyed and no one gave shifted from its purpose till date. Bitcoin has become so popular and vast that other means of benefiting from it has been discovered which makes it a more valuable and attractive concept for payment which was the main purpose of its creation and to serve as alternative to the traditional banking system. It is not here to bring an end to the traditional banking system and also not here to devour from its main purpose of invention, but the aspect of investment it can also be ventured into, makes it an exclusive asset also to depend in when it comes to saving and investment altogether.

Well someone like me still takes solace in the fact that it's still open source, and mining is still controlled by individual companies and not the government yet, although I envision government agencies taking part in mining activities in the nearest future, if they haven't already.

I think the bitcoin spot ETF's was initiated to encourage mass adoption of bitcoin either directly or indirectly as some people feel safer buying shares from companies than purchasing their own coins through exchanges and finally transferring it to their decentralized wallets. projects get slightly flexible at long runs to maintain its spot in the competitive markets. Bitcoin isn't the first.

Yeah, we can only hope for the best and most importantly that it doesn't loose its core values in the long run which are anonymity, transparency, decentralization and a store of value. With government continuous interference, privacy is still kinda farfetched.

It's true, until now the world of banking still exists and is present in our midst and BTC is here to provide its users with various other conveniences. Yes, BTC is also seen as an investment tool that has various advantages compared to investments made traditionally and of course provides users with a good opportunity to get large returns if done long term and correctly. Apart from that, Blockchain technology behind Bitcoin also provides many business opportunities if you dig deeper into where it can be used.

Banks and bitcoin will help every people in the world  because we will be using one of them in our own conveniences
and this is also the reason why I find someone that tries to make them with competition annoying , we must not hate
banks and just choose Bitcoin instead lets see what is their to provide for us and not just now but in our future as well .

Yep, bitcoin is still bitcoin, it has never changed but people's usage has changed and most people just prefer to use bitcoin as an investment rather than a currency.

But I think it's not as serious or bad as many people think. Because at the end of the day, whether bitcoin is a currency or an investment, it is still decentralized and most importantly, it still benefits those who invest in it. An invention will truly become useless when it is not used or does not bring any useful use or use case. But in this case, bitcoin has brought great benefits as a decentralized asset. It not only helps people become aware of the concept of decentralization, privacy... but it has been helping many people improve their economy and have a better life.
So, even though bitcoin is not used as a currency and is only considered an investment, it is not that bad.

Bitcoin is not turning from it purpose instead bitcoin is even getting more awareness because the number of people that use it for p2p has  increased more compare to years back. You should also understand that bitcoin has different purposes that people can also hodl to invest in it. Bitcoin has different good purposes, it is left for people to make choice on what they want to use bitcoin for.  It is just a matter of time as bitcoin is gaining more adoption without any interruption from government users will increase that will be using it to purchase things.

If their are some limitations that are depriving people to spend bitcoin the most important thing is for people to understand the value bitcoin has and take advantage of it by investing that can make one to be financially stable.

Besides El Salvador, the only country that makes bitcoin legal tender, which other countries have adopted bitcoin as legal tender? You need to know that to be able to use bitcoin as currency, we need to be recognized and legal by the government, and that is also a huge barrier for bitcoin to become a currency.

I won't deny you that bitcoin is more often used as an investment than as a currency. For personal gain, we took advantage of bitcoin as an investment to seek profits for ourselves. But we also need to consider the factor from the government, if they do not allow it, no one can use bitcoin as currency even if we want that to happen. So the fact that bitcoin cannot become a currency largely comes from the government, you should also ask the government about this, not just us.

Bitcoin was created as a p2p digital cash system to bypass banks and empower the people. A nice idea, but no one buys coffee with Bitcoin anymore. Honestly, who would? Too slow, pricey, and volatile for daily transactions.

People have spoken and chosen a different Bitcoin path. Its become a store of value, a digital gold, a hedge against inflation and the reckless money printing of central banks. Its a moon ticket, investment, and speculation. You know what? Thats OK.

The beauty of Bitcoin is that its decentralized. No one controls it, not even yours truly. The people control its fate, and they're HODLing, accumulating, and betting on it. It shows the strength of free markets and human inventiveness. Bitcoin is changing and finding its place. Thats worth celebrating, friends.

We can never say it is turning away from its real purpose until nobody is buying and selling their Bitcoin. Most exchanges are adding P2P trade which means that they are seeing the growing event in this area. We can say it is for investment purposes because that is what we think but if we try to use this as an alternative currency, we can also say that it was still in the direction of its creation. We can't totally feel it now because only a few people are using it and also still few companies are accepting this but it is actually growing and sooner we really gonna be seeing it boldly.

Sadly, yes.

Most people choose to use Bitcoin as a commodity instead of as a currency.

A lot people choose to hold their coins in centralized exchange or company (ETF) instead of in non custodial wallet.

Most people don't care with their privacy, they willing to submit their KYC to centralized sites and some people even dare to publicizing if they're own Bitcoin.

Despite the fact the fact that a lot of people are investing in Bitcoin and holding it for a long time for the sake of profit, there are still people who are spending their Bitcoin to purchase any item they desire. Bitcoin is not turning away from its purpose, man. Bitcoin was not only created for p2p transactions; it was meant to be used for whatever purpose it can serve. Bitcoin is a store of value; rather than holding fiat, which can lose value, it's better to hold bitcoin, and that is why investors are holding onto their bitcoin and not fiat. 

So, you went to a section of the forum filled with traders to find out they're mostly... trading :D
Should have also gone to speculation to find that most people do what the name suggests.

Go to development and you'll see people who talk about ways to improve bitcoin. Go to mining and you'll see people looking for efficient ways to mine and I'm sure that you'll find someone willing to sell you something for bitcoin in the Marketplace ;)

Its not really that Bitcoin had gone into its main purpose, it is really just that the community or most people taking advantage into one of its benefits or opportunities on which Bitcoin could give.
We can actually do the same time when it comes on p2p transactions and at the same time you do make money once the value do rise up and this is something that could benefit out.
Just dont make yourself that too serious on sticking into a single thing if Bitcoin could give out other possible benefits that a certain person would really be able to attain or achieve on simply holding it.
No matter what we do, as long there's demand and recognition then its price wouldnt really be just that stagnant or would really be staying still. This is why it is really that getting that so much support.

We do know that it isnt really just that limited to BItcoin but in overall coins in the market that we can see those kind of opportunities. This is why it would really be better that
you should really be wise on placing yourself or having that good entry to take that advantage and making profits.

All of these is correct, but i don't think it still means that BTC is moving away from its purpose, we have to accept that people would use their coins anyway the way they want to, but doing so does not change what BTC is, and that is a p2p digital currency. Take note as well that there are also people who use BTC as a currency, people who correctly store their coins in self custody and people who only use p2p exchanges, they probably are not talked about that much.

Are you using bitcoin as an investment or are you just using it as a currency? And what's wrong with people using bitcoin as an investment when they are getting many benefits from it and their lives are getting better and better because of bitcoin? Additionally , even if you are using bitcoin as an investment, if there is a store that accepts bitcoin payments, will anyone prohibit you from using bitcoin for payment? So how can it be said that bitcoin is gradually moving away from its purpose of becoming a currency?




This is true, but I don't think it's the reason why bitcoin strayed from its original purpose of being a currency . Bitcoin is still bitcoin, it's just that the way people use bitcoin is not in the direction of turning bitcoin into currency .

Bitcoin is created in a multiple purpose and limited of 21million total supply, in which is simply used as a digital currency where it can be used as a means of payment, trading and investment by holding for a long term and price keep increasing as time goes on. Therefore Bitcoin is an asset that keeps increasing with a very high demand and low supply in the cryptocurrency market.

Bitcoin was initially designed as P2P electronic cash. The fact that now people are using it as a store of value has to do much with the currency's deflationary mechanism. With high fees and slow confirmation times, we shouldn't expect people to change the way they use BTC anytime soon. Now with "Wall Street" in the game, things got worse.

What I care about is Bitcoin's decentralization. If institutional investment companies amass a large portion of the circulating supply, BTC would be doomed. Even if economic holders don't determine network consensus (only miners). These entities can influence the direction of the Bitcoin project with their money. It's like moving one step backwards. At least, the code is open source. With many forks around, Bitcoin's original ideals can be preserved for generations. :)

Bitcoin is a digital currency which can be stored for value since the price is expected to keep increasing with time so any body can decide to buy Bitcoin and hold it for a long time while some others can decide to accumulate a larger amount of it and use it to perform some digital transactions so it all depends on what everyone has in mind for acquiring it but the actual aim of inventing Bitcoin was for direct transactions without interference of anyone apart from you and the receiving address but because of the fact that Bitcoin keeps increasing in value, people now see it as a means of investment that is why majority of people are buying and hodling it for long term profits

The "real" purpose of bitcoin was to be used, and it's used, sure it was intended to be used as currency but it is used as an investment yet that is still a way of using it. This means that as long as it's being used, then I think it's fine, we do not care "why" it is used, we only care that people are using it.

To be fair, I do use bitcoin on my daily life, because I have a loan from an online place, it's basically a bank, literally legally registered in my nation, but they do accept bitcoin payments as well, so I am repaying 30% of my debt in bitcoin, rest is from regular traditional banks that I pay in fiat. Which means that bitcoin is growing more in the sense that we use it as currency too.

I don't think so.
Bitcoin is a P2P currency which is supposed to give people the financial freedom to send and receive funds without being tied down.

But at the same time it also has monetary value. The fact that investors are in it doesn't mean that it's turning away from it's purpose, it just means that they're realizing it's potential. Whether they see it as a chance to make money or anything else doesn't matter.

If you want proof that it's going in the right direction, look how many people in many under-developed nations are now using crypto to transact because they have no other way. This effect in itself is huge. They're using btc and usd-backed coins as their main gateway to life.

If you ask me, that's a very powerful effect and won't be going down any time soon.

So far, many have made an issue out of this, thinking that it was wrong or deviant if you invested or traded it. Nobody has an issue with fiat currencies such as USD, EUR, AUD, CAD, JPY, and many others being traded in addition to being used as means of payment. Thus, why is Bitcoin the only one being questioned while they are the same?

But do you think that even with cheaper fees and faster confirmation times, people will use bitcoin as currency? I bet that won't happen either, people will still turn bitcoin into an investment because it brings more benefits to them instead of using bitcoin as a peer-to-peer currency which doesn't bring too much benefit. Personal interests always come first in a pragmatic world like today.


Even if they hold the majority of the supply, and that would make bitcoin more centralized, but as long as you and everyone store bitcoin in uncustodial wallets, no one can take our bitcoin. Bitcoin's decentralization will never completely disappear, it will become weaker with the participation of Wall Street investors. But this is inevitable because no one can stop them from doing this, so we need to accept and adapt.

That is really a big issue since people is diverted into investment since this is what usually been discussed by a lot of people. The currency purpose has been less concern by people since maybe the high network fee maybe contribute this since people don't want to waste their money to pay huge fees just to do small or big transaction.

This should be the purpose of bitcoin existence, but a lot of people see an opportunity to gain something from its volatility that's why instead of using it. Many just think that if they hold it there would be more higher chance for them to earn more money. And I think we can't stop to make people think or decide to use bitcoin as currency since majority goes after on bitcoin because they can earn something from this coin.

The majority of people are here only due to urge for easy money. They don't care about it's first purpose, they are too happy about etf and another shitcoin pump

Transaction fees can be a barrier that makes people not want to use bitcoin to pay, but I think the main reason is because the government has not legalized or approved us to use bitcoin as a main currency. What businesses or organizations do you think dare to oppose the government and use bitcoin as a payment method when the government does not allow it? So, even if bitcoin did not have high transaction fees and was not volatile, using bitcoin as a currency would still be difficult to implement.

Our use of bitcoin as an investment has never caused bitcoin to lose its function as a currency, we can still use it as a peer-to-peer currency despite high transaction fees and volatility. But the problem is, like I said, governments and regulations are the barriers that prevent bitcoin from becoming a popular currency.

It was created for peer to peer and for anonymity, but most of us are using it as an investment tool and giving out our information to use centralized exchange by providing KYC.
I think that everyone is free to do what they want when they bought it, and the creator somehow expected it this way since there is a limited supply the price would surely increase.
Bitcoin might be used as a peer to peer or as a currency when the price became stable and the fee became lower.

Peer 2 peer transactions is something that could really be done and there's no issue to that, it is really just that majority of us would really be dealing up with exchange platforms on which we do really make trades.
On the moment that you would really be  tending to hold then it would really be just that simply holding on your own wallet and since we know that price is volatile and unpredictable, then it would really be that inevitable
that your money or investment will really be neither going up and down. Even lets say that you do focus about on having that p2p transactions or really that utilizing its actual usage but there's no way that you could be able to avoid when it comes to price volatility. On the moment that you've seen that you do make money then who doesnt want that?

On the moment that you've seen that increase then who wouldnt really be interested with that? Majority of us would really be interested. Right?
But of course you wouldnt really be forgetting about the risks on losing money too. So it would really be neither of both possible conditions.

Bitcoin may be mostly used as an investment these days but that’s because bitcoin is not yet totally accepted as a currency globally. But eventually in the long run, all the profits we have acquired from bitcoin will still be used as a currency.

I guess this shouldn’t be a big issue because the fact that we are still patronizing bitcoin, regardless if it’s for an investment or p2p digital currency, this only proves that we are not turning away from the main design of bitcoin but we are just utilizing bitcoin for a double purpose, but we all know in the end it all boils down using bitcoin as a currency when everything about bitcoin will be normalized and accepted in all countries.

But now it doesn't serve its real purpose since lots of people are not looking into this use case but rather they think about accumulating it for investment. Although there's nothing wrong for people to think about this is investment for them since that is their choice and somehow they can earn something from it specially if they can handle well their investment then also decide something useful to increase their chance to gain profits from bitcoin. Maybe we can also see this to use as currency when price goes stable since people might think about using it for each transaction they made. I also guess the fees contribute something for people to decide not to use it for transaction since we could see that sometimes bitcoin is not good option to transfer especially the fee goes up.

I don't think the transaction fee issue is the reason people don't want to use bitcoin as a currency. If you learn the history of bitcoin then you will know that it has been used as an investment since 2010 and at that time transaction fees were not as high as in recent years. It can be said that bitcoin has been used as an investment, commodity since the early days of bitcoin's creation. Many people blame ETFs and the government as the main reason why bitcoin cannot become a currency, but the root cause is that early investors did it, not necessarily the fault of the government or the ETFs. As me and beerlover said, it doesn't matter what bitcoin is, what matters is that it is used and benefits us.

Transaction fees are ruining the purpose of Bitcoin as an innovative payment network and waiting for it to go down is inconvenient especially to important transactions because who wants to pay higher fees in a smaller transactions right? But if we treat Bitcoin as an investment, fees does not matter at all especially if you are a long term hodler because you can always wait for the lowest possible.

I'm not really interested on what should be the main purpose of Bitcoin, because I think the most useful and important aspect from Bitcoin is to fit different needs and demands adopters have on their personal lives. For you it can be that Bitcoin fits better as currency, but for me it may be more interesting as an investment. For another person, it can mean privacy, while for someone else it can be the perfect tool they were looking for in order to have access to gambling. And I'm not really judging who is right, who is wrong and who is the best adopter among all.

Good that Bitcoin is being useful for everyone in different ways. Thankfully we have access to it and hopefully even more people are going to become adopters as well in the near future!

I fell in love with bitcoin when I discovered it sometime around 2013-2014.  I've been a long time financial advisor, one who's been around long enough to know how corrupt big banks are, and that is what really turned me on to bitcoin.  I am still of the mind that bitcoin should be used as a currency and that it's appeal as a currency is still something making it popular. 

I know a lot of people don't agree with me any more on this, but this is just how I feel, and have always felt.

Actually in this case I think it still does not deviate from the original purpose.
Although it is clearer that this goal is used as an alternative but when regulations are held back from the government and the price continues to develop in a better direction, this does make the situation change because it is not wrong when investing in bitcoin in the end but that does not mean the goal has changed because the purpose of creating bitcoin remains the same from the beginning until now.

For more than a decade now bitcoin has been created, it turns out that the benefits are greater than we thought so it is not wrong to take advantage of this as a situation for trading or investing because no one will prohibit it.
As long as it does not interfere with the original purpose where bitcoin functioned as an alternative to means of payment, it is indeed no problem to also add functions that can indeed occur over time because being used as an investment also does not interfere with the original purpose of bitcoin.

Well to an extent what you are saying is true but even at that I feel the solution to all this has been made but just that the adoption is really really slow  that's why the solution still seems vague to many people that are using and sending Bitcoin for their transactions. The lightning network was a perfect counter for this issue but up till now a lot of Bitcoin users still shy away to its use and I feel maybe it's due to the fact that to use it is quite complicated.

I agree with this, it might happen that OP is more expose where Bitcoin is being traded in a centralized exchange but nothing in fundamental changed in Bitcoin. Which means that if it happens that centralized exchange fails at some degree, bitcoin can still operate and maintain it's value because it is more likely to operate according to original purpose. There is no middle man or institution in between, only P2P.

Bitcoin turn away from its purpose? I could remember vividly that we're the ones that have full access to bitcoin and use it for our measurable means. P2P is very strict and recommendable but for other developing countries, they've watch and observed bitcoin to be huge threat and will denied their citizens access, thereby led to ban. Exchanges ranks first and they've always lead because they've fuel up liquidity. Bitcoin is prioritized by many investors in the space but we should remain mute when it comes to making choices.

It depends on what you are using Bitcoin for that is what will determine if it is serving its purpose in your life or not. There are various ways people approach Bitcoin and there are several views that they see Bitcoin. if you are using Bitcoin for transactions of course you will feel it is serving its purpose and whenever you stop using it for that purpose or when the fees are high you cannot use them then you start feeling like there is no use for it now. My purpose for Bitcoin is to store my fiat in Bitcoin that is why i see it as a way to give my money value, i don not care if the price drops because i don't have use for that money now and in the future the price will be higher.

I can't deny that Bitcoin is mostly called as investment rather than a payment but still it's too early and there are places we can pay Bitcoin directly/indirectly as payments, here are some websites you can purchase using bitcoin in the form of BTC itself or via gift cards.

250+ companies & stores that accept cryptocurrency (https://bitpay.com/directory/)

Bitcoin is decentralized money, so user can do what they want to do it and that's the absolute meaning of decentralization so whether it's used as investment or payment it is not losing it's fame it just keeps growing every day.

We dont need to be too idealistic someone who will only consider bitcoin as a medium of exchange because after all if you look at the current conditions , bitcoin is actually becoming more flexible and even sometimes it is not uncommon for people to consider that bitcoin is only for investment or as one of the trading assets .  Thats not wrong because after all it is a condition that occurs now even though there must be a little corrected from his understanding but the fact that currently occurs that bitcoin can indeed be used as an investment or trading.

So,by looking at this we dont have to consider it a mistake because even though bitcoin is functioned as a payment option but with the flexible nature of bitcoin now coupled with the value of prices that are getting better in terms of prospects, IMO its not a mistake if this is considered a good enough asset to be used as investment material and reap the benefits in it .

Bitcoin is not only limited to a single purpose, but it can do both as a form of money and an investment, that’s how flexible and useful bitcoin is. And as much as people want to use it for fiat alternative, but as long as investing and hodling seem more profitable than spending alone, then it’s not surprising that people would stick to it more. At the end of the day, people acquire bitcoin for money and wealth, and financial security and independence, that’s the most important about it.

Bitcoin is a fully decentralized network and as much as we'd like to keep everyone confined to discussing the technology alone, everyone is entitled to their own focus and endeavors. That's why the trading and speculation sections were created specifically for folks that solely want to discuss price action and movements. If you want to see and participate in more Bitcoin Network centric discussions, Development and Technical Discussions (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?board=6.0) is a good start.

It's similar to how ethereum opened access to creation and development of smart contracts and now there are memecoins everywhere which are essentially token smart contracts deployed by anyone, anywhere in the world.

Bitcoin is not yet accepted in most countries, and governments are still against it in most countries, which is really affecting bitcoin growth. When bitcoin is accepted in different countries, the companies, and stores will begin to accept bitcoin as a payment method, then bitcoin will start serving its purpose, but for now everyone is making money from bitcoin. People are accumulating so that they can sell when the price is high.
 
I will be using my country as an example. Bitcoin transactions are not allowed by the Central Bank, and accounts connected to bitcoin transactions will be blocked, so don’t expect people from my country to be making transactions with bitcoin daily, because when they try to convert some to fiat, their account might be compromised, so everyone prefers holding their bitcoin.

While bitcoin has a stated purpose, this does not mean that it is the only thing you can do with it, besides it is not as if this exclusive to bitcoin, every single good out there can be used to speculate with and become an asset in the process.

And when even fiat currencies are subject to speculation, I do not see how it could be possible for bitcoin to not go through the same process as well, so just let it go and accept it, since there is nothing we can do to stop this anyway.

Asking this question can mean that you are very familiar with BTC, so why still ask if it's built for investment purpose or for peer-to-peer to alternate fiat? Obviously mate it is mainly created for peer-to-peer to alternate fiat. But unlike with the traditional fiats, BTC only has a limited amount of supply and it is decentralized.

Eventually, people figured out that these two are responsible to the continuous increase in the BTC value and that is how they started to treat it like an asset for investment use. Even though many people are like that now, I think we can still say that the rate at which BTC is being used as a currency has increased by some percent.

Of course no one can stop "Wall Street". Money talks, right? Our only hope would be to hold as much BTC in non-custodial wallets to help prevent a major takeover from the "Elites". As long as there's a small number of people in defense of decentralization, Bitcoin won't be going anywhere soon.

Fortunately, there's a "Plan B" if all else fails. The community can make a new fork if things start going south. We can thank Bitcoin's open source nature for that. If BTC was centralized and closed source, it would've been doomed by now. Satoshi knew what was coming all along. He was well ahead of his time. Who knows what crypto's future will be once CBDCs are launched? :D

Wall Street will find ways to manipulate bitcoin as much as possible but they won't be foolish enough to make it completely centralized because if they did, many people would abandon bitcoin and it would become less attractive. I think they understand that the decentralized nature is the key factor that makes people interested in it. But if they turn it into a centralized asset and people lose interest and even leave it, their control over it will also become useless, IMO.

Regarding CBDC, I don't care much and am not worried because it is just a digital version of fiat. Fiat has no impact on crypto, so I also believe that CBDC will have no impact on crypto either.

Bitcoin gained its value due to the demand and supply. Bitcoin’s limited supply was used so that it can be protected against inflation. But because it is limited and the demand is high, the value goes up.
Bitcoin is very helpful in transactions between different countries because especially in underdeveloped countries, the fees of sending money to a different country is high. It’s also much more convenient and faster to send bitcoin from country to another.

It was created to be an alternative money.

Now that can mean a lot of things. In the day-to-day, we buy things with money, but we also store money to build wealth. Because of the fees, using Bitcoin for all daily transactions is just not going to be possible without adaptations like the Lightning network. However, Bitcoin is still an excellent storage of wealth over the long term. "Long term" is also 7 to 10 years or longer. Not 12 months like some people may think.

I would add to this:

It was created to be an alternative money for people who could not safely use normal money.

Bitcoin was never created to replace the US dollar, or even be a digital means of mainstream everyday transactions. It was specifically designed to create a means of value transfer for people who could not, for legal reasons, use an ordinary bank.

The blockchain architecture was designed to have one (any only one) unique advantage: to be able to thwart government interference and discovery into transaction. Whatever it might also do today (e.g. be an meme investment instrument), in its inception, that's all Satoshi was trying to do.

(And in the end he didn't really do that since a) Bitcoin has a public ledger and chain analysis allows governments to track transactions; and b) Bitcoin is, defacto, controlled by a small handful of companies that could be--or maybe even are already--controlled by a government).

Bitcoin--and the blockchain architecture generally--cannot scale to even within several orders of magnitude of the volume necessary to handle mainstream worldwide transactions. And it was never meant to: only a tiny niche of users have the "problem" that Bitcoin was designed to solve: most people don't need to avoid their government to make transactions.

Hmm, I think by "I would love to see different versions of input." you meant by community perspective, TBH my personal view is Bitcoin was meant to be the best self-controlled payment system but now it's likely, not possible as you better know meme pool is not consistent yup there are some alternatives like L2, still there's nothing if people consider Bitcoin as a mode of investment for long term. You need to know that narratives keep changing. I don't oppose anyone in the Bitcoin community  haha this is my updated view on it as if you love to make transactions with Bitcoin just go for it, if you love to make holding then g for it, if you love to trade only on short frames go for it.

Whereever Bitcoin fiits in your network just go for it.

I'd like to think of it as "birthing a new purpose" rather than be very pessimistic about it and call it steering away from what it is intended to do. First off, it's not like everyone's at a disadvantage with the way things work in the crypto industry now, matter of fact, I would say that it is much better if bitcoin remains this way, or at the very least be able to discover and explore new ways it could be used cause it just remaining as a glorified currency remittance system is droll, and had bitcoin stayed like that it would've died in its first few years mind you.

So while some bitcoin purists here say they like bitcoin to go back from being a very important store of value of an ecosystem it has birthed and nurtured from the ground up, to a currency system, I always slap them with the fact that if bitcoin remained that way, there's wouldn't be any bitcoin to look at right now.

Sticking to one goal for bitcoin might be hardly impossible since not everyone of us has the same mindset and goals with bitcoin. Although Satoshi has introduced bitcoin as a digital currency, but if we can do more than that and still put us having the highest benefits, why not? After all, bitcoin is freedom, which only means as long as bitcoin is capable to do it without the interruption of any other third party most particularly the government, then it will never go against with bitcoin feature. So just don’t bother to raise an issue with bitcoin as an investment.

We cannot blame people on how are they using Bitcoin whether it is for investment or currency purposes. What matters is that Bitcoin grows as a cryptocirrency both in value and popularity. Many people are taking advantage of its volatile market price and there's nothing wrong with that. On the other hand, many countries are still not widely accepting Bitcoin as a mode of payment, so what's their choice then? Would it be better if they will just wait for its adoption? Ask yourself as well, are you using cryptocurrencies on most of your transactions? With high fees?

There are lots of room for improvement on blockchain technology and we'll get there someday. For now it would be best to make use of cryptocurrencies the way you will benefit whether as a user or an investor. As long as you aren't using it on illegal transactions then you're good to go.

I believe that Bitcoin, is not turning from it's original purpose, instead it is diversifying and becoming more innovative, meaning that it's added investment features is what is making it's adoption to be growing faster. Why it seems like the original p2p intention of Satoshi Nakamoto, for creating Bitcoin, is turning away from it's purpose is because hodling it for investment is more profitable, but that doesn't mean that people are no longer using it for p2p to make payments for transactions.

Although because people hodl Bitcoin more for investment, they hardly use it for payments, they'd rather use fiat, but I believe that if more businesses starts to accept Bitcoin, as payment, it will encourage more hodlers to be making payments with it.

I believe that Bitcoin, is not turning from it's original purpose, instead it is diversifying and becoming more innovative, meaning that it's added investment features is what is making it's adoption to be growing faster. Why it seems like the original p2p intention of Satoshi Nakamoto, for creating Bitcoin, is turning away from it's purpose is because hodling it for investment is more profitable, but that doesn't mean that people are no longer using it for p2p to make payments for transactions.

Although because people hodl Bitcoin more for investment, they hardly use it for payments, they'd rather use fiat, but I believe that if more businesses starts to accept Bitcoin, as payment, it will encourage more hodlers to be making payments with it.

Bitcoin is both. Bitcoin was created for the purpose of making a peer-to-peer transactions without the help of 3rd party in the process but this, besides many other positive sides, is the reason why it became a perfect investment choice. Just look at this, created 15 years ago, the limited supply of 21 million Bitcoins, coin with no $ value goes up to tens of thousands of dollars. Now you see, many people see Bitcoin as a great investment option and don't care about the other positive sides and functionalities that Bitcoin carries and that's pretty normal. Not everyone cares about decentralization, improved privacy, security and so on. Many people value ROI because finances matter in 21th century. Bitcoin still carries it's purpose, simply, people prefer to invest and automatically you think that it gradually turned away to mainly investment purpose.

Bitcoin was initially created as a peer-to-peer electronic cash system intended to replace traditional fiat currencies for everyday transactions.
Due to the volatility and appreciation of Bitcoin as we pass the West, people are increasingly adopting Bitcoin as an investment asset. Consider using it for transactional use as well as for future savings.

So we can say that the original purpose of Bitcoin has not changed but people have started to think and view Bitcoin differently. It is being used for future planning and people are starting to trust Bitcoin more and more to keep their large amounts of money safe for a long time and get double, or triple benefits from it.

It is the choice of people to want to use bitcoin as their transaction or as their investment/trading, and both of these things will not make bitcoin deviate from its intended purpose, because it is the same as when people trade fiat on forex, it will not deviate from the purpose of fiat as a transaction tool. So this does not need to be too much of a problem, because it is as simple as people want to seek profit on the increase and decrease of the price of bitcoin and there is nothing wrong with that.

That is exactly false.

Bitcoin was never intended to replace everyday transactions, and the blockchain architecture makes anything close to that absolutely impossible.

Bitcoin was invented to give people a way to transfer value who could not safely use normal means. Satoshi never intended to replace the normal banking system, and he would have looked like an idiot if that's what he said he was trying to do since it's technically impossible.

The thing is most people don't care about decentralization. They're only after what's most convenient for them. If Bitcoin becomes centralized, the masses will carry on as if nothing happened. It's all about making money these days. Gone are the days when the industry "sticked" to Bitcoin's true principles. Satoshi would've been very disappointed by now.

We've moved one step backwards by entrusting middlemen with our BTC. Now they hold "all of the cards" to manipulate (or influence) Bitcoin as they wish. With the approval of spot ETFs, institutional investment companies will buy most of the circulating supply. They can even use their money to build huge mining farms and participate in network consensus. Will things change for the better in the future? I doubt it. Nothing is set in stone, so lets hope for the best.

The purpose of bitcoin is clearly explained and it’s for the use as alternative to the traditional fiat currency. Overtime because of the other secondary benefits of having bitcoin, people have now delve into the investment aspect of it and that has made bitcoin a more recognisable and recommended asset to be invested in. It can’t move away from its main purpose, it just will suit more what the person wants to use it for and it’s all good in both ways. Its volatile nature that gave it the investable value is what a lot of people have leverage on and it’s the best for it, because it has encouraged more use and adoption of it while maintaining its decentralized system.

Given what's going on, you're not wrong in saying that most people don't care about decentralization, privacy, but not all. There are still some people who are concerned about privacy and the decentralized nature of bitcoin such as those on this forum. There is nothing wrong with people caring a lot about profits and money because without money, what good is privacy? Like who will care about the homeless and the poor? But I think at some point, when people have acquired a bit of wealth, they will care more about privacy because they certainly will not want that hard-earned money to be controlled by the government or a third party.

Things will not change for the better in the future but I believe it is also unlikely that bitcoin will become completely centralized because there will always be a demand for that and that is what makes bitcoin so special.

Yes; indeed, bitcoin was not created to replace the banking system but to allow money to flow more securely from one person to another and to avoid bank jingles. Bitcoin was introduced to avoid high inquiries and high fees. The main thing to keep in mind is the fast service and it is also true that the faster you can transfer your large amount of money to another person through Bitcoin, the banks can't deliver that fast, and Bitcoin is one of the fastest ways to transfer money in the world right now.

For example, if you are going to the bank and want to send 10 million dollars to someone, how much time do you think it will take to send it from one bank to another person's bank? If you send the same transaction through Bitcoin, it will take you only a few minutes and your message will reach the other person and no one will know, only you or the person you have sent it to. So the main purpose of Bitcoin is to provide financial privacy and decentralization and that purpose stays.

Bitcoin is clearly defined on the whitepaper that it's a decentralized form of currency that enables it users to carry out transaction without a third party.So the purpose of Bitcoin still remain what it is till date,users only make their choice on how profitable to use Bitcoin,it's a choice of a bitcoiner to decide whether to make payments online with his coin or to invest on it.Let's us just assume that the fiat that is used for making transactions has a bull moment if it's held for a long term, majority would definitely want hold onto it because of how beneficial it would be in the long term and it doesn't also change the actual purpose.But unfortunately fiats doesn't have a bull moment, that why I stated it clearly that it's an assumption.

High inquires, yes. High fees, no. Bitcoin transactions can cost up to $50 these days, which is more than most wire transfers. And at the level you are talking about, nobody would care much about the price in any case. Satoshi very intentionally designed Bitcoin to be slow and expensive (a.k.a. the proof-of-work model).


You are correct that the original goal of Bitcoin was to allow people to transfer value in such a way that it could not be tracked by governments. (That is no longer technically true since there is chain analysis).

But almost nobody has a real need to transfer millions of dollars secretly. Indeed, in virtually every valid business scenario, the counterparties of a transfer of that size very much want to be identified in a real way such that there is legal force behind the transfer, not just a technical detail.

Most people don't want to conflict with their government, either out of fear of being caught or plain honesty. For those people, bank transfers work just fine for large amounts of money.

And for small amounts of money (viz. under $10,000), Bitcoin (and blockchain generally) is not technically suitable.

So without Bitcoin's original purpose meaning anything anymore, Bitcoin's only purpose in life today is that of a meme investment instrument.